Charlotte Hibberd

Charlotte Hibberd was the first born child of Mary (nee Pavey) and Elijah Hibberd.  She was born in Love Lane, Salisbury, Wiltshire in November 1821 (Love Lane really does exist!) and was baptised in St Martin's Church on 21 November.
Her parents, Mary and Elijah, had only recently married - on 5 August 1821 at St Edmunds Church in Salisbury.  It's interesting to note that Mary had been baptised in St Edmunds, as had her father (that is, it was a 'family church').  But once Mary and Elijah married, the family Church became St Martin's.  Elijah had been Baptised in St Martin's and all of his and Mary's subsequent children were also baptised in St Martin's.  Of course, the two churches are only a kilometre apart in the Centre of Salisbury!

Above is a drawing of St Martin's Church, Salisbury by Joseph Mallord William Turner from 1800 (two years after Elijah had been baptised).

But I digress, this story is about Charlotte.  Her parents, the abovementioned Mary and Elijah, baptised another seven children in St Martin's - Henry, Jane, Fanny, Elijah, John, Frederick and Samuel - from 1823 to 1838.  Then in 1840 Elijah Hibberd died.  He was 41.  The following year Mary Hibberd (nee Pavey) died.  She was also 41.  Charlotte, age 20 is an orphan.  Not so bad, except for the fact that she was the eldest and Samuel, the youngest, was only 3!  But again, I sort of digress, because there no information available to show whether or not Charlotte took over the care of her siblings.  I can't find some of the family is the Census for 1841 and those that I can find appear to be scattered with other family members, but we don't really know what happened in the next ten years!  The next known fact about Charlotte is that, at age 30 (relatively old for the time, which makes me think that she DID look after her younger siblings), on 7 January 1851 she baptised a son named Benjamin James Hibberd at St Martin's.  Benjamin died soon after his baptism.  The following year - on 30 November 1852 - Charlotte again baptised a son in St Martin's, named Henry George Hibberd.  He also dies soon after birth.  The next event for Charlotte in St Martin's is her wedding to George Jerred on 28 March 1853.  The Minister, no doubt, said 'thank god'.  She and George were actually living in the same house in the 1851 Census.  She was the 'head' and he was a 'lodger'!  Oh, and she was also six years older than George!  So when they married, she was 32 and he was 26.  I can only presume that little Henry and Benjamin were offspring of George!  The parish record doesn't say that Charlotte was a 'whore' as it often did in the 1800s for children born of unmarried mothers.
In any case, her marriage meant that when Charlotte baptised Maria Susannah Jerred on Christmas Day in 1853, she was actually baptising a 'legitimate' child!  George Jerred was next to be baptised - on 24 March.  He lived longer than his brothers but died later in the year.   Charlotte and George named the next son George Jerred as well, and he was baptised on 22 November 1857.  Next was Ann Jerred, baptised on 22 May 1859, but, again, she died later that year.  In early 1860 Charlotte was pregnant again and her husband, George Jerred, died age 33.  Her seventh child, Eliza Jerred, was born on 11 June 1860 in Trinity Street, Salisbury and baptised on 22 June.  So widowed Charlotte has three children - Maria (age 7), George (age 3) and baby Eliza.  Eliza died age two in mid 1862.  Then Charlotte has another child on 22 March 1864 she names Eliza again.  This child was also baptised in St Martin's - only her mother's name is listed (seeing that her husband George has been dead for four years, this makes sense!).
Charlotte Jerred, age 42, died soon after Eliza's birth.  I'd like to think that "she lived her own life", but I suspect that life was incredibly difficult for her.  Having had so many children died young, as well as herself, potentially she had Syphilis (a sexually transmitted disease prevalent at the time - still prevalent now!).  We can only ponder.  But it's a tragic story!  Of her three children alive at her death only George survived childhood.  Baby Eliza died late in 1864 - without a mother to care for her, she was vulnerable - and Maria died in 1866 when she was 12.

It's probably worth noting that most of Charlotte's siblings do OK for themselves (I can't find details for Jane or John but the other five appear to live very normal lives - at least for that time - with the known occupations of her brothers being a butcher, an umbrella maker and a Baptist Minister).

[Relationship to SNR = sister of great-great-great grandfather]

Elizabeth Ellen White

Many years ago. Many, many years ago, my grandparents were visited by a distant relative who left with them a family history.  When I expressed interest in family history, the document was given to me.  It was put together by Lorely Morling - and it was the history of the White side of my family.  When I contacted her, Lorely sent me a number of documents that she'd put together and one of them was about Elizabeth Ellen White.  Her story is sad, tragic even.  The story is beautifully told in the newspaper of the day.  Thank you to the National Library of Australia Newspaper collection!

Elizabeth Ellen White was born on 31 July 1875 in Stalybridge, Lancashire, England.  She was the first born child of Mary Jane (nee Robinson) and Robert White (They were first cousins, but their story is for another day!).  Three years later, on 17 June 1878, her younger brother, John, was born and soon after the family migrated to Sydney, Australia accompanied by Robert's sister Ann.  The family settled into Australian life!  Ann married and Mary fell pregnant with her third child.

Then on 30 July 1880, Mary took the two children into the city with Ann.  It was the day before Elizabeth's 6th birthday.  The four were walking along George Street and needed to cross the street.  Mary was holding John and Ann was with Elizabeth.  Elizabeth saw her mother crossing the street ahead and ran towards her.  A horse drawn omnibus was coming down George Street and was unable to stop in time. Elizabeth was trampled by one of the horses and died.  I think there were expectations 130 years ago that not all children would survive - and just like today, the roads can be dangerous.  Poor little Lizzy!

(Relationship to SNR = Great-great grandfather's sister)

Edith Lucy King

I have a number of photographs of close friends of family members.  In many cases they aren't labelled, which is very unfortunate.  However, the photo of E. L. King is labelled and Ruth Joyce told me that Miss King was a close friend of her parents, Gwenyth and Wilfrid Crofts and their families.  (And I'll scan the photo as soon as I can find the safe spot that I have put it!)  I was quite interested in Edith's story given that she was a missionary in India over 15 years before Gwenyth and Wilfred commenced their service in India.

Edith Lucy King was born in Victoria, Australia in 1881, the daughter of Ada Louise and Charles Edward King.  She had two brothers and a sister.   In about 1898, when she was 17, her family moved to Perth, Western Australia.

Early in 1904, 23 year old Edith applied to the foreign mission committee of the Baptist Union of Western Australia  as a Zenana missionary in the WA district in India.

Zenana is a persian word meaning 'pertaining to women'.  In Hindu and Muslim societies at that time, women remained in the 'zenana' (the women's part of the house).  The Baptist Zenana Mission - full title being 'Ladies' Association for the Support of Zenana Work and Biblewomen in India in connection with the Baptist Mission Society' - was formed in 1867.  It enabled female missionaries to work in India to educate Indian women in the 'zenana' who would not otherwise have received any education.  Other denominations also had Zenana missions and these missions were supported by the Indian government.  The work of the Zenana missions expanded quickly to include schooling and shelters for Indian children.  The Zenana Missions later merged into general mission work (the Baptist Zenana Mission became part of the Baptist Missionary Society in 1914, but retained separate committee and funds until 1925).  The Zenana missionaries from Australia identified themselves as being separate from the English organisation, but there were strong connections.

Anyway, the application from Edith King was accepted and on 15 November 1904 she delivered a farewell address in the Museum street Baptist Church, Perth.   She was described as a cheerful and determined person. 

The late 1800s / early 1900s was an era of growth of single women missionaries.  Indeed, most of the initial Baptist missionaries sent from Australia were women!  They were highly educated for the time and had pretty strong convictions - you had to!!! - and Edith's determination would have been useful!  However, it was not an easy life.  Travel and communication in India was difficult.  The health of the missionaries suffered, particularly from the effects of the climate and illnesses such as malaria and cholera.    

Edith returned on furrlough to Australia on 5 August 1913 and was able to attend the funeral of her father which took place on 6 October.  She also spoke (preached?) about missionary life in a number of churches in Perth.  She returned to India during 1914.

Each year the Baptist Churches in Western Australia would collect gifts that were then sent to the Mission that Edith was working at.  The West Australian, a Perth newspaper on Thursday 29 September 1910 wrote: "The four missionaries themselves, Mr and Mrs White, Miss King and Miss Brown, all of whom went out to the field of labour from this city, have not been forgotten, and gifts of hams, dried fruits, james and so forth are accompanying the toys and clothing intended for their young charges." And on Thursday 23 September 1915 the paper wrote about the Christmas gifts: "nothing had been forgotten which could bring joy to the little people at the Rajbari Mission Station, where the two Western Australian missionaries, the Misses E.L. King and G.E. Brown, have laboured devotedly for years.")

Owing to failing health, Edith came back to Australia in September 1919.  It was her intention to return to India, but she did not.  She spent 1920 speaking and preaching to churches in Western Australia.  Her mother died on 28 November 1920.  

Edith Lucy King died on 19 May 1921 and was buried in Karrakatta, Perth.  She was 40 years old.

(Relationship to SNR = Friend of Great-grandparents)

William Frederick Joyce

On 5 July 1878, in Stanley Street, Collingwood, Melbourne, Ellen (nee Carne) gave birth to her first son.  She and her husband, Albert Samuel Joyce, already had two daughters.  They named their son William Frederick Joyce.

William was the name of Ellen's father and also the name of her brother closest in age to her who had tragically died in the Merri Creek when Ellen was 11 years old.

Albert Samuel Joyce was a plumber.  He had developed a type of milk bucket, which had become very popular due to it's effective lid - you still can pick up "Joyce Milk Buckets" - they make good letterboxes!  Albert and Ellen had a very comfortable life!  Following William, they had a further three girls (two of whom died young), then finished with two boys.

William was a committed Christian, and was very active in the George Street Baptist Church, Fitzroy.   Then one day he fell heavily - tripping on the footpath in Smith Street, Collingwood.  Probably now, 114 years later, he'd be taken to a hospital, with x-rays or an MRI to determine what was happening and whether his injury could be treated.  But they didn't have those options available.  So William's injury was left and it appeared that he had recovered.  Unfortunately he hadn't recovered!  I don't understand the science of his injury, but in the last five months of his life he suffered from extreme pain.  Through it all he remained cheerful and peaceful, living from day to day - very eager to talk to others about his faith.  He died on 16 November 1898, age 20, surrounded by his family and close friends.

We wouldn't know anything about his story, except that some time after his death a small booklet was written by Rev Edward Isaac, called "A Young Man's Dying Testimony".  And for the price of one penny, one could read the story of this admirable young man.  The language is flowery to the point of being a little "over the top", but it is a story from the heart written by someone who obviously liked William very much.  Fortunately one of William's younger brothers kept the booklet and I found it in his papers.  Without it, William Frederick Joyce's life would simply have read: born 5/7/1878 Collingwood; died 16/11/1898 Collingwood; no children...

(Relationship to SNR = Great-grandfather's brother)

Sarah Edwards

I inherited the "family history" gene from my father.  When I was growing up, I knew that Sarah Edwards was one of the people that fascinated Dad the most.  I used to tease him about it - but just a little.  Once I became interested in my family history, I could totally understand how easy it is to get interested in a particular person, and more specifically, interested in Sarah Edwards.  It's the mystery of actions...

Sarah Edwards was born in 1849 in Winchester. Her parents were John and Eliza.  John was a butcher.  She was the eldest of four children.  For some unexplained reason, she came to Australia on the Burlington in 1867 when she was 18.  I guess people were expected to be a lot "more mature" back then, but still.  Why??  Had she been naughty?  Disgraced the family?  She was educated and she kept in touch with her family (which was good for my dad because he obtained some early photos of Sarah through a family member in Winchester).  One of her prized possessions was a glass photograph of her family in Winchester - she kept it with her all her life (note that her younger brother had not yet been born).

On 26 February 1870 she married Augustus John Hollebone in Orange (of all places!).  She had nine children plus adopted the son of her daughter  (Her last child was born after this son - I like to think that she didn't want Ernest to feel left out or suspect anything, but he was born only two years after her daughter!!).  She was involved in a "performing group" - which involved acting and singing (on one occasion a duet with her husband called 'Gypsy Countess').  At the end of her life she lived with her youngest daughter.  Sarah gave the photo to one of her granddaughters before her death.  She died on 17 July 1915, age 66.   One daughter had died age 4, but the remaining children, with the possible exception of one, died after her.  Later two of her sons, including Ernest, died as a result of illness sustained through the Great War...

(Relationship to SNR = Great-great-great-grandmother)